


what manner of incident

by Anonymous



Category: Ruse (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Humor, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-17
Updated: 2021-02-17
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:48:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29520408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: I can assure you I take no pleasure in the necessity of this act. (Archive)
Relationships: Emma Bishop/Simon Archard
Collections: Anonymous Fics





	what manner of incident

**Author's Note:**

> My first go at writing these characters.

"If you don't hold still," Emma said somewhat waspishly, "you may die."

It had about the same effect as she had anticipated on Simon Archard - that is, none at all. He straightened his broad, taut frame with sheer laborous force of will, and Emma discovered that she'd never quite considered exactly how broad, tall and well-muscled said form was with the proper gravity: mostly because never before had it been pressing down on her for support with quite so much urgency.

"We must reach the laboratory," he said. His perfectly sculpted cheekbones burned with a fervorous flush. Emma did not disagree, precisely, and indeed they managed four more steps before his knees buckled and they both went down in a heap.

"As I was saying," she continued with a distinctly frosty tone, "if you would give me a moment, you would discover that I took the time to ensure for a speedy if unorthodox route to the highest level. And now - " She squirmed briefly under his weight and wheezed out a breath. " - if you'd remove your elbow from my ribcage."

"Ah," he said, managing to focus on her with more effort than she liked. She much preferred his eyes keen, even the incision-keenness that so often exasperated her with its less than gracious insights. "My turn to underestimate you, Miss Bishop?"

Now she really knew he'd been drugged. "Your pupils are extraordinarily dilated," she observed, frowning.

"If I die, Miss Bishop," he said, bending close with a forbidding frown furrowing his brow.

Her breath caught. "There's - really no reason to talk this way," she said, her voice wavering ever-so-slightly. "If you'd just been patient, we wouldn't be in this predicament to begin with."

His eyebrows tilted up an inexpressibly sarcastic hairsbreadth and he continued as if she hadn't spoken. "If I die, here, in this miserably outdated bowel of the earth - "

"Yes?" Emma urged, feeling the broad, corded strength of his thigh between hers.

He blinked. "I'll expect you to catch him," he said, and collapsed.

Emma emitted a thoroughly undignified squeak as his weight landed on her.

"Miss Bishop?" The worried voice echoed down the hall. She waved a hand frantically above his broad shoulders, pressing her forearm to his collarbone in an effort to prop him up above her enough for her to breathe.

"You must be joking," she gasped, and then several hands joined effort in hauling him off.

"You all right, Miss Bishop?" someone asked worriedly.

Emma lay there for a split second, hearing the creak of the ancient pulleys and wheels as Simon was levered obligingly into the contraption. "Bloody terrific," she said. "Someone help me off this floor?"


End file.
